The Mile High City elevated its reputation from a lowly cow town to an upscale city owing, in part, to a vast and varied collection of public art installed throughout Denver.

At the National Western Center this Saturday, Denver will dedicate three works of public art that bring the city’s collection to nearly 500 pieces, according to Rudi Cerri, public art program manager for Denver Arts and Venues.

“We are working on 90 active projects and plan to add about 20 pieces to Denver’s public art collection this year,” Cerri said. “It’s exciting.”

Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony will officially dedicate two new artworks and a piece already on site, but as of yet undedicated due to a COVID-19 pandemic delay. Through the Denver Public Art program the new “Rising Together” by Matthew Mazzotta and “Sacred Threads” by Bimmer Torres, and, previously, “The People’s Bridge of the Sun” by David Ocelotl Garcia were installed on the evolving campus of the National Western Center. With more than 2.2 million square feet of indoor and outdoor space, the center was built by the City and County of Denver in partnership with the National Western Stock Show and Colorado State University.

Saturday’s event will include a blessing of the artwork by the Native American dance company Grupo Tlaloc Danza Azteca, Cerri said. A procession will be followed by festivities featuring a band, food, yoga and vendors at the People’s Market at the Center.

Cerri said the event will be the first of many intended to take place in Mazzotta’s “Rising Together,” a barn-like structure with Torres’s “Sacred Threads” mural on the roof.

“This is a sculptural barn that reminds us how at a barn-raising, everyone came to the site and helped out. Raising a barn was a community effort,” Cerri said, “and this piece of art doesn’t come alive until it’s engaged. This is intended for the community at the National Western Center and this part of town and will host concerts, birthday parties and other gatherings and will be a place to meet — a beautiful new space where community comes together.”

Public art forms and informs communities

Public art acts as a conduit for community, said Cerri, who has served in his position for the past 21 years.

“It’s gone by quickly,” said Cerri.

At The University of Colorado Boulder, Cerri earned his undergraduate degree with an emphasis on environmental psychology. He attended graduate school at CU-Denver, where he studied architecture. Prior to his position with the city of Denver, he was an exhibitions designer and curator at the Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities.

Public art is the people’s art

Public art is Cerri’s private passion.

“What’s most important is that this artwork is the city’s artwork. It’s selected by them and belongs to the city, the citizens. It’s their artwork, and it’s free, and people don’t have to go to a museum or gallery,” he said. “The pieces are always accessible for the most part. Hopefully that gives citizens pride of ownership.”

The city of Denver also can take pride in spearheading the American public art movement.

“Denver was one of the first cities to adopt the 1% for the arts program,” Cerri said, “so over these almost 40 years, we have accumulated a lot. Especially downtown, you can’t walk more than a block without encountering public art.”

How Denver grew its great art collection

Denver’s art collection began officially in 1988 under Mayor Federico Peña. The Public Art Ordinance executive order held that 1% of the budgets of city-funded construction projects over $1 million be designated for public art.

“At that time, most historical pieces came under that fold — like the bronze pieces and the fountains in City Park, and all the art around the city before the ordinance became part of the city’s collection,” Cerri said.

How Denver picks pieces of public art

The city’s process for selecting public art aims for fairness, transparency and collaboration, involving community members and art professionals, along with Cerri and his staff.

Cerri provided an example of how the process works: “If we have a new park in Denver, the first thing I do is meet with the parks department and landscape architect to learn about the the function of the park and what we are trying to achieve,” said Cerri.

“Then I find out how much money we have,” he said. “If we have a $10 million project, as an example, we have $100,000 to work with.”

A selection committee is formed with three-or-four members who live in the neighborhood or have a business nearby.

“We include a working artist, an art professional — a conservator or curator — and we always ask the City Council person to participate, plus the design team and someone from the Denver Commission of Cultural Affairs,” Cerri said.

Once formed, the committee meets to discuss goals and objectives for a site-specific artwork. Physical durability of public art guides any selections, Cerri said.

“We want to make sure that whatever we commission is going to hold up and last.”

The city then issues an online call to artists on callforentry.org and leaves it up for a month. The committee reviews all applicants who submit six images of previous artworks, a re’sume’ and an artist’s statement.

Eighty percent of Denver public art is by Colorado artists

The committee winnows the applicants, eventually deciding upon three-to-five finalists.

“At that point, we invite the finalists to meet at the site. We give them information to do a proposal, and we pay them, depending on the budget, to prepare a proposal. We give finalists four weeks. Then they come back and do a presentation,” Cerri said. “After the presentations, we pick an artist.”

About 80 percent of the art in Denver’s collection is by Colorado artists.

“Colorado is a right-to-work state, so it’s up to the committee whether we chose a local artist,” said Cerri. “Anybody can apply. There are no limitations.”

Walking tours are a step towards art education

One limitation in any public art program is a lack of knowledge, understanding or appreciation of artworks. Early in his tenure, Cerri instituted walking tours to educate people about Denver’s public art. The tours expanded to include bicycle tours and scooter tours.

The free public art tours run one to two hours and are limited to 15 people.

“After that it gets hard, especially on a bike or scooter tour, for people to hear. It’s easier with a small group to have a discussion. We want people to talk about the art, not just have a docent telling them facts. We want to get input and feedback on the art.”

This year’s guided tours focus on public art on 14th Street and in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, City Park, Civic Center and the Golden Triangle and also the Colorado Convention Center.

Booked online at denverpublicart.org, the tours tend to fill up quickly, but Cerri encourages curious people to create their own art tours.

“Go online and you can see all our collection there in beautiful images and with pages about the artists,” he said. “You can search an address and look at the art in an area and make your own tour.”

Rosalie Martin, a Littleton resident, has volunteered as a walking tour docent for the past 10 years.

“It’s a great program. The art is amazing in this city. I think the city of Denver works hard and invests well in the artists.” she said. “A lot of people go to places and see the art , but don’t know anything about it. I try to tell a story about every piece of art. And everybody has their own interpretation of another person’s work.”

Martin, 66 and retired, enjoys learning about the collection and interacting with participants on her tours. She said, “We get a plethora of people.”

Denver public art bolsters local economy in many ways

Among the plethora of people are critics, both Martin and Cerri admitted. Cerri emphasized that while there’s no accounting for personal taste, public art does benefit the community.

“Sometimes, people get upset and wonder why we are using money for art. That money is part of the construction project already, and the money does go back into the community.”

Cerri explained how, in addition to attracting tourists, public art helps spin the wheels of local commerce: “If an artist has a budget of $100,000, that includes buying materials for the project. Most of the time, the artist hires a fabricator, an engineer, a truck driver, an electrician and people to pour a cement pad. We want the artist to make money, but much of the money goes right back to the community.”

The director of the Denver Art Museum, Christoph Heinrich, acknowledges the key role Denver Public Art plays in the Mile High City.

“We have Denver’s Public Art program to thank for bringing art to all corners of our city. ‘One percent for the arts,’ the policy that one percent of construction costs supports art in public places, enhances our buildings, parks and streetscapes, making Denver an art-filled city,” Heinrich said. “Furthermore, this program has ensured that Denver has become a hub for world-class public art.”